ECSE 426
Lecture 1
Steve Majerus PhD
Administration
• Are you in the right room (this is ECSE 426)?
• Do you have the prerequisites (ECSE 344 or
more)?
– Or a background in MOS physics and transistor
operation
– This is a circuits course but some MOS background is
assumed
Terminology
• IC – Integrated Circuit
PCB
– Integrates tens to billions of elements
– Interfaces with other circuits
• PCB – Printed Circuit Board
– Interfaces with physical world
Die
Package
FETs
Terminology
• IC – Integrated Circuit
– Thousands to millions (or billions) of devices (mostly MOSFET)
– One substrate (monolithic)
– Intended to be combined into PCB-based systems
– Analog (RF), digital (computer), or mixed (sensors)
Terminology
• ASIC – Application Specific
Integrated Circuit
– High performance, small size
– Specialized ( low-medium volume)
– Medical, military, energy
• SoC – System on Chip
– VLSI: Very Large Scale Integration,
i.e. hardware descriptive language
– Intellectual Property (IP) core
– Medium cost in volume
Motivation
• Industry
– Low cost and miniaturization
– Software: ASICs and SoCs
– Many jobs not just in Silicon Valley
• Research
– Push performance limits
– Environmental or specific needs
(i.e. physics, medical, space)
• IC vs. PCB designer
Motivation
• Circuit concepts not limited to IC design
• Understand & simulate modern off-the-shelf ICs
• ASIC cost decreasing
– Business cost to IC is not limited to IC fab
Syllabus Review
We need to do something new
IC Design Flow
• Technology
Architec- • Feasibility
ture • Cost
• Theory
• Simulation Design
• Layout
• Fabricate
Validate • Test
• Manufacture
Now how do we sell
these products?
Example Architecture –
Pacemaker
Cardiac Signal ASIC
Programmer
Cloud Data Portal
Data Signal RF
Transducer
Acquisition Processing Interface
Stimu- Timing Control
Data Hub
Patient
Nerve lator Generator Logic
Interface
Muscle Internal External
IC Technology: BJT vs FET
PMOS
NPN PNP
NMOS
P N
